A United Nations expert on indigenous populations has said Mexican troops should suspend their patrols in the troubled southern states of Chiapas and Guerrero in order to promote peace.

The president of the UN working group on indigenous populations, Irene Daesk, said the armed forces should go back to their bases and concentrate on defending Mexico from any external aggression.

Mrs Daesk also called on guerrilla groups that operate in Guerrero and Chiapas to lay down their weapons and "make a peaceful effort toward a dialogue with the
government."

Several NGOs had called on the army to stop patrols in Guerrero and Chiapas, where the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) and the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) operate.

In January, an appeals court overturned the convictions of more than 20 people accused of carrying out an infamous 1997 massacre in
which 45 people were killed for allegedly supporting Zapatista
guerrillas.

The Zapatista uprising began in January 1994, when the rebel Zapatista National Liberation Army, led by a man known only as "Subcommandante Marcos" declared war on the central government in an effort to gain improved living conditions and better rights for indigenous Indian peasants in the southern Chiapas region.